1. The anger of the
little-minded divides like a crack
in stone
There are others who
when angered are like gold
That divides but easily
welds again
But the anger of noble
souls that walk in the
righteous path
Is like the arrow’s
wound in water
Which splashes
momentarily but itself unites
again.
2. These girls with arms
all full of
bangles,
They served me their
feast, warm and
fragrant
And asked me to eat as
much as I
liked,
Pouring the ghee on it,
It was green, and they
said it was
only vegetables cooked,
But really they served
me Amrit!
3. Poor Barri the shepherd
held me by
my cloth
And would not let me go
at all from
his house.
And simple Kaari of
Paliyanur
Gave me his pick-axe,
saying, dig
with me.
Seraman said, come let
us go to
Kailas.
These three
love-offerings rank high
And rank with the little
blue sari
That the girls so
lovingly gave for me
to wear.
4. (on a woman married
to an unworthy
man)
If I could get at the
Brahma (the creator)
that yoked
This deer to this dry
log of a man
I would wring his four
necks and fling
his four heeds
To go the same way that
the fifth
went before.
5. A virtuous wife
worthy of her lord
Makes life happy under
my conditions.
But when there is
incompatibility
Don’t tell anyone, but
take sanyaas.
6. Take it not always that
relatives
Are those whom blood
unites.
Disease that is born
with you,
Does it not kill?
The herb that grows in
the distant
jungle,
Does it not save you?
Will you hear me how I
feasted at the
great Wedding
Of the Pandyan King, the
royal
scholar?
I was pressed and was
pushed and my
hunger sore oppressed
me,
My belly shrank, but of
rice I had
nothing.
7. When a woman, at her
husband’s bidding,
very unwillingly served
food to Avvai:
Alas! my eyes blink to
see,
My hands shake with
shame,
And my good mouth refuses
to open
And all my bones burn so
with pain
At the sight of food so
unwillingly served!
8. The divine poets
Kural, the sum of
the sacred Vedas,
The Thevaram of the
Three (Shaivite
saints)
The Tiruvaimczhi of the
(Vaithnav)
sage,
the Tirukkovai, the Tiruvachakam,
the Tirumantram of
Tirumular,
All are but one and the
same
teaching.
We bow to the
undeserving we
wander, and we beg,
We cross the wide ocean,
we pretend,
we enslave and rule,
We sing eulogies, and we
lead our
souls to the Pit:
All for a measure of
rice for this
tyrant Belly.
9. Look at the swallow’s
ties’, or the
beautiful lac,
The white ant’s
wonderful structure;
Look at the honey and
the hive of the
bee;
Or the little spider’s
delicate web:
No mortal man can
imitate these.
Let no one therefore
vaunt his skill
Because he can do this
or that.
There is none but in
something
excels.
10. Harshness cannot
succeed against
gentleness,
The arrow speeds its way
through the
wild elephant
But it cannot pierce
through yielding
cotton.
The rock that breaks not
for
the blows of the long
crowbar
Splits under the gentle
stress of the green tree root.
Compare the king and the
man of
learning;
The scholar’s dominion
is greater
than the king’s.
The king’s glory is
limited to his
domains;
But the scholar is
esteemed wherever
he may go.
11. Consider it well,
this body is but a
worthless home
For poisonous worms and
diseases
numberless.
The wise know this and
so like the
water on the lotus
Without attachment pass
their lives
in silence.
12. Men may do deadly evil
unto them;
The wise will yet exert
to save these
men.
Have you seen men aim
deadly blows
With axes at the stately
tree?
Until the end when the
noble tree
falls down
It throws its hospitable
shade
On the axe-men, and
protects them
from the sun.
Of afflictions hard to
bear,
Hard, very hard to bear
is poverty;
Harder still is poverty
in youth.
Greater affliction than
that
Is disease incurable.
But harder is his lot
Who is yoked to a wife
Who loves him not.
And his affliction
greatest,
Who has to look to such
a one
For his daily food.
Verses by Avvaiyar, translated by C.Rajagopalachari in his monograph Avvaiar, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1971, which had earlier appeared in Gandhi’s Young India. Commentary compiled from this monograph, and from material sent in by Akhila Shivdas and Shri Ramachandran.
